I actually feel kind of bad for the should-have-known-better folks who voted for Obama. It was obvious to me last fall that he was a false-flag candidate, a stone liberal masquerading as a centrist. And I understand that, for true stone liberals, he’s actually been somewhat of a disappointment. But for people who can do math, their misplaced faith in Obama has to sting twice, once for having been so dreadfully wrong, and once again because snarky assholes like me just won’t let it slide.
But here’s the good news, from my point of view: Last night’s results may have the immediate impact of putting the brakes on all this tax-and-spend stupidity. The larger stupidities will endure, of course, but we just might have gotten ourselves shut of the home-buyer’s tax-credit last night. Surely this is an event worth celebrating.
This is Instanpundit.com’s Glenn Reynolds in today’s New York Post:
But [Obama] was right the first time about not being ready for the Oval Office. As president, he seems confused and a bit distant on the issues, leaving the details to congressional Democrats and an ever-growing number of “czars” while he golfs and launches attacks at Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.
With the economy tanking (unemployment is much worse after Obama’s deficit-swelling stimulus than Obama’s advisers predicted it would be with no stimulus at all), with the promised post-partisanship dissolving into witch-hunts against hostile media and the promised post-racial America devolving into the awkwardly staged “beer summit,” with the “necessary war” in Afghanistan the subject of endless dithering and the promised “smart diplomacy” materializing as a series of awkward missteps by Hillary Clinton, the froth has become a lot less frothy.
Republicans, who were prepared to give Obama the benefit of the doubt a year ago, now can’t stand him. Independents who voted for him are deserting in droves. And Democrats don’t seem that happy either.
The good news for Obama is that he doesn’t have to run for re-election for three more years, so he still has a chance to get his feet under him. But for Congress members facing elections in a year — including but not limited to the famous “blue-dog” Democrats — the lesson of this week is that Obama can’t save their seats if the public is unhappy (and, equally, that Obama probably can’t hurt them much, either). So what Obama wants is nice, but it’s what the voters in their districts want that will control.
That makes Obama’s health-care “reform” package look iffy and his other big plans for remaking America look even iffier. With the hope having faded, enthusiasm for change seems much diminished. From a mythic figure, Obama has shrunk to an ordinary politician — and, so far, not an obviously deft one. It’ll be politics as usual from now on, and we can thank Obama, at least, for making politics-as-usual seem not so bad after all …
Thomas Johnson says:
Greg: We can call it Obamunism. He won. He can legislate all the socialist programs he wants. So it goes. Someone forgot to tell him however, that you also get to be Commander in Chief. Not organizer in chief, not discussion facilitator in chief, but commander, When your troops are under fire and ask for reinforcements, you don’t go golfing and navel gaze on date night. He has the blood of every fallen soldier since June on his hands. This is his war, the one he campaigned on being the correct one and he allows our soldiers to die without proper reinforcements and equipment. This callous wasting of American blood is unacceptable. The last time in American History a commander left troops unreinforced on this scale was when Sam Houston could not reinforce the garrision at the Alamo. 0 has reinforcements available and for the first time in my adult life I am ashamed of my country. A commander with no plan, no backbone and no clue.
For this I dub him “the 0” not the “O”, but “0” the one that lies next to the “9” on my keyboard: zero.
November 4, 2009 — 10:15 pm